Three generations of the Otto family provide fine timber to South Australians for almost 100 years

IN a continuing series, meet the Otto family, who have been providing fine timber to South Australians for almost 100 years.

Theo Otto 2 1/2yrs. The Otto family are the next in our line of family dynasties that we are celebrating in the Sunday Mail. For the past 80 years the family has been THE timber merchants of choice for builders and furniture makers, working from the original factory at Stepney. Ken and Anne Otto, with their their two sons Nathan and Jason and their 2.5yrold grandson Theo, who is the fifth generation. Pic: Tricia Watkinson.

KEN Otto produces a piece of timber veneer, sliced so finely that it’s thinner than paper.

The wafer of wood is among dozens tucked away in draws labelled with names such as Huon Pine Birdseye, Blackwood Fiddleback, Zebrawood and American Walnut Flame, which retails for $80sqm.

He holds the sheet up to the light, it creaks ever so slightly in his weathered hands, and points out to a delicate pattern in the King William Pine crotch.

“In this piece you can see a fish scale pattern,” the 59-year-old says.

He grabs a sheet of Tasmanian Myrtle Beech fiddleback, and explains how it reflects light across the grain, its hue changing from red to pink, and giving an almost 3D effect.

These delicate timbers will one day be laid in doors, coffee tables, dining tables and add eye-catching texture and beauty to bespoke pieces of furniture.

The veneer sits alongside shelves loaded with planks of American White oak, Jarrah, Blackwood, spotted gum, western red cedar, to name a few, stacked 6m high in the 8000sqm factory of third-generation Otto’s Timber Joinery & Hardware at Stepney.

In another corner under the sign ‘fancy timbers’ are pieces of wood ready to be fashioned into archery bows, violins, guitars and even gunstocks.

Inside the factory, a rare piece of industrial real estate so close to the city, is the constant hum of circular saws, which jettison sawdust as workers cut pieces to measure for customers.

The sweet smell of sawdust fills the nostrils as visitors step through the building’s corrugated doors and lingers long after they return home.

“Timber appeals to three senses — sight, smell and touch,” Ken, managing director, says.

“You can’t help but touch and be intrigued by timbers colour, grain, patterns and texture. It can be so easily worked with and shaped into all sorts of shapes and designs.”

Otto Timber Joinery & Hardware was founded 96 years ago by Ken’s grandfather, house builder Georg Bernhard (Ben) Otto, out of frustration that he could not get the timber he required for his homes.

Ben, was born in the Barossa Valley in 1895 to German parents Carl Gottlieb Otto and Caroline Jung, whose forbears emigrated to Australia in 1845 with the wave of Lutheran migrants escaping religious persecution and discrimination in Silesia and Saxony.

He lived and was educated at Marananga, where his parents had a fruit orchard.

But as Ben’s late son Max explained in a speech to the Kensington and Norwood Historical Society in 1996, fruit picking wasn’t the life for him.

“My Dad, after leaving school, sort of calculated that picking fruit there was no way he would ever earn enough money to buy the fruit orchard, or vineyard or whatever it was,” he said.

“So, he had some dreams that he was going to build houses, rows and rows of houses.

“I think he left home with eight schillings and a penny. I don’t think he ever spent the eight schillings and a penny. It was tough times over all of that period.”

Max said Ben spent his teenage years working with builders at Sedan, Swan Reach and finally Adelaide where he also studied carpentry and joinery at the School of Mines.

In 1918, aged 23, he founded his building company on Magill Rd, Stepney.

Despite the onset of the 1930s Depression he became one of SA’s most prolific builders, his team of tradies constructing a house a week, many in Stepney (which was the first German urban settlement in Adelaide) and surrounds.

His grand Tudor homes defined by steeply pitched roofs and frontages embellished with decorative timber panelling tied together with walls of stone and brickwork have stood the test of time with many still standing across metropolitan and regional SA.

A property that he built at Magill Rd, Kensington in the 1930s is on the market with an asking price of $1.12m.

In 1934 Ben built a hardware store at 139 Magill Road, part of a group of four heritage listed shops that are today filled with cafes, hair salons, fashion outlets, home furnishing and antique stores.

Atop the site of the former hardware store is the original Otto & Co sign, reputedly Adelaide’s first neon sign.

Ben was also a councillor and Alderman at St Peter’s Council.

But in 1937, aged just 42, Ben died following a year long battle with stomach cancer leaving behind wife Gertrude and five children.

At the time of his death he had established the hardware store, a small joinery shop and a timber mill.

The construction arm of the business was sold, but Gertie, one of her cousins and Ben’s brother continued to run the joinery and timber mill operations.

“If Gertie hadn’t wanted to keep the business going we wouldn’t be here,” Ken says.

Max was 12 when his father died and took over the operations when he was 32, building it up to the business that stands today.

Max also followed his father into local government as councillor, mayor and alderman of St Peters.

Max, who died on November 16, 2012,aged 88, developed the company into specialty and construction timbers.

He bought four houses around the existing factory to expand the business, which today employs about 20 people.

Among clients are acclaimed South Australian furniture designer, Khai Liew, whose workshop and shop front are just up the road from the Otto factory on Magill Rd.

Otto also supplied all the Russian whitewood for the Velodrome track at Gepps Cross and more recently provided the timber for the fitout of Jamie Oliver’s first Adelaide eatery, Jamie’s Kitchen.

Ken began at the business at 21 “cleaning bricks day after day” for 20c an hour but helped finish the construction of the main shed and is now one of Adelaide’s most respected timber merchants.

He met his wife Anne, 54, who began working at the company as a junior clerk when she left school aged 16.

The pair married in 1980 and have five children Ashley, 30, Sonya, 28, Jason, 26, Chelsea, 22 and Nathan 20.

Jason and Nathan are following their family’s footsteps in the industry. The pair completed

a timber science course at the CSIRO in Melbourne and are developing their skills in wood machining and joinery.

Anne who is general manager of Otto and Co, says the company will begin a new phase of growth in December when they start renovating the sales centre to construct a major timber display centre on site so customers can walk in and see the different species of timber and their applications.

But possibly one of the most unique applications of timber can be seen at Ken and Anne’s Teringie house.

Ken, has constructed a vast pergola and deck, supported by imposing Australian Cypress Pine trunks which have been stripped back revealing their natural beauty.

“Everyone who walks in that pergola and see those posts they have to hug them,” Ken says.

“It says something about a product that is grown and not produced.”

As for his favourite timber, that’s Australian Red Cedar.

“It has a beautiful rich colour with a striking grain, stable and easy to work with. It also has a unique history with early colonisation of Australia,” he says.

The family business has been around for 90 years and Ken is confident that it will be here for many more.

“The timber industry has a great future because of its sustainably, carbon neutrality and is good for the environment,” he said.

“Technology advances have seen timber from plantation forests being laminated, preservative treated, kiln dried and stress graded to provide an almost unlimited size range for construction purposes from residential houses to multistorey buildings.

“The biggest challenge for manufacturing in Australia is to remain competitive with overseas.”